While Pres. Bush has been criticized for taking more “vacation” days than any other president, clearly he’s not taken enough to, um, rest enough to be, er, coherent.
Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule. I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, where’s Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas. He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this.
Um … if by “Mandela” he means Nelson Mandela, he’s actually, um, quite alive and nowhere near Iraq. If not … I have no idea what he’s going on about.
(And, yes, Saddam was an inutterably brutal ruler — thought that didn’t stop us getting into bed with him when it was (a) him or the Iranians, and (b) a chance to peel him away from the Soviets. But, yes, Saddam Hussein was a brutal ruler, and his bloody rule — like that of so many other strongmen, Tito coming to mind, as well as the Soviets in general) — both suppressed and masked and exploited and, ultimately, exacerbated tensions between different groups in Iraq, which makes turning it into a democracy a difficult challenge and why the hell didn’t you think of that back in 2003? — but, so far as I know, among the many people he did kill, Nelson Mandela was not one of them.)
Maybe a several month sabbatical down in Crawford is in order …
(via BD)
Suppose he had said; “If there was an Iraqi Mandela, he’s dead. Saddam killed him, and everyone like him” – I hope that’s what he was getting at. Of course, with Mr. Bush’s well-known encyclopedic knowledge of world events and cultures, that must be what he intended.
That’s a plausible explanation, and even makes some sense. And the way it came across was just the sort of jumbled syntax and half-thought (or half-remembered-coached) sentences that seem to characterize Bush when speaking off the cuff.
“Yeah, I remember Rummy — or was it Dick? — blaming it all on there not being one of them guys there like a Nelson Mandela — huh, wasn’t he a bishop or a priest or somethin’? — ’cause Saddam killed anyone like that, and folks thought apartheid was bad, jeez louise. So — okay, I can use that reasoning kinda thing here in my next sentence, just — oops, already four words in and folks are looking at me funny, better keep goin, try to make ’em understand …”
Seriously though, how much of what Bush says ever makes sense. Listening to him speak is like pulling teeth. I just keep asking when is he going to stop talking.
“No, no…you’re not being impeached. It’s a vacation.”
Me and my wishful thinking.
Well, if he doesn’t realize he’s being impeached, that takes half the fun away from it, doesn’t it?